MERALCO coach Norman Black has seen so many battles to get carried away by the Bolts’ 104-91 opening triumph against Barangay Ginebra in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup finals.
Neither does he get excited by the historical figures that say Game 1 victors went on to win the best-of-seven series in 60 out of 88 instances.
“We got the first game. But I’m going to look at the second game like it’s 0-0 and we have to get the second game,” said Mr. Black.
“I’ll have to make sure that my players are prepared for Game 2, try to anticipate the adjustments they might make and find a few adjustments we can make also.”
His players understand the situation well.
“It’s just one quarter lang kung baga sa championship (match) so we’re still not celebrating this win. Talagang goal namin is to get the four wins and mag-champion,” said Allein Maliksi, Meralco’s top scorer with 22 highlighted by a sizzling 5-of-7 three-point clip in Wednesday’s series kickoff.
The Bolts gun for a 2-0 lead tonight at the MOA Arena in a 6 p.m. tiff that Black expects to be “very exciting” following the heated altercation between his player Raymar Jose and Ginebra’s Arvin Tolentino in the dying seconds.
The two former FEU stalwarts continued their tussle near their respective dugouts and almost came to blows. Messrs. Tolentino and Jose face possible sanction from the Commissioner’s Office for their actions.
Meralco drew first blood in Part IV of its titular showdown with three-time tormentor Ginebra using a relentless defense complemented by a well-oiled offense.
The Bolts forced the usually efficient Justin Brownlee to seven-of-20 shooting (35%) and pouncing on the absence of Japeth Aguilar (calf), dropped 52 points inside the paint and won the rebounding battle, 48-44.
“We really have to match their intensity, physicality and aggressiveness because this series will be dictated by who wants it more,” noted Ginebra skipper LA Tenorio, who himself was held to five points in Game 1.
Mr. Tenorio shared that coach Tim Cone summed it best in his post-game talk.
“He said hindi ito yung team na nakilala niya na naglaro for the past playoff games (against TNT and NLEX). I agree with that. Offensively and defensively, we’re out of whack and playing against a motivated Meralco team, we can’t afford to do that.”
For Brownlee, it’s imperative that Ginebra does a better job defending the lanes as well as Mr. Maliksi’s long bombs next time. “If we could do that defensively and we keep moving the ball and looking for better looks and really focus on converting our shots, we’ll be okay,” he said.
Ginebra’s resident import isn’t losing faith in his never-say-die teammates. “No series has been decided off one game. They set the tone but I think we can move forward, make adjustments and see where it goes from there,” said Mr. Brownlee.
